WE EXPLORE

IT was a big warm, airless room; you could see no walls for the bookshelves and pictures which covered it. Aunt Isobel was sitting by the fire with the newspaper in her hand. She looked very tall and grand, but grandfather was quite little, and very stout. He had a very red face, and a white moustache, and very thin white hair, and his eyebrows were thick and fierce. And this is what he said when he saw us:

"I say! What a crowd of them!"

"Come and introduce yourselves to your grandfather," said Aunt Isobel quietly. "The eldest first. Denys—isn't it?"

Denys marched up and held out his hand, and he stared at grandfather, and grandfather stared at him.

"I expect you'll find us older than you thought," Denys said in his cool grand manner; "there's only one of us that wants a nursery!"

And then Puff surprised me by pushing forward and sticking out his fat chest in absurd imitation of Denys.

"But that isn't me!" he cried. "I never has had a nursery all my life, and I won't be putted in it now."

Grandfather held out his hand at once to him.

"Well spoken, my little Bantam! Where would you like to be putted?"

Puff's one little spark of impudence was over. He lowered his head and got very red.

"Puff doesn't know what he is talking about," I said. "He tries to be bigger than he is. But if you don't object, grandfather, we'd like to call the nursery the schoolroom."

Puff seemed to have broken the ice and grandfather did not look alarming to me; only little, and old.

And then we all shook hands with him, and told him our names, and Denys began to talk. But I did not fancy he was quite so sure of himself now as he had been upstairs, for he stammered a little.

"We'd like to thank you for having us here, and—and—I dare say you'll let us fellows know about school and that kind of thing. We're going to be soldiers, Aylwin and I. We think the Navy good enough for Puff. He's short and stubborn and wants keeping down, but of course he's a kid, and hasn't had much chance as yet. I don't know what you'll settle about the girls."

There was dead silence, then grandfather threw his head back on his cushion and began to laugh. Denys got as red as Puff had, for grandfather seemed to be laughing at him. And then he turned to Aunt Isobel.

"I wash my hands of 'em all, my dear. You'll settle what becomes of them. I don't envy you the job. And, now I've seen them, they can make themselves scarce."

He waved his hand to us, as if dismissing us, and said:

"Go on reading, Isobel."

But Denys stood firm. He wasn't going to be treated like this.

"Excuse me, grandfather, but there are a few things we'd like to say. First, the old servant of yours—Peggy—seems to think that she is to rule us. She may manage Puff, but not the rest of us. We hope you'll trust to our honour to behave ourselves. We mean to, and we're accustomed to go our own way, and do pretty well as we think best. If you have any special rules you'd like us to follow, we'll keep them, but we've never been managed by an old woman servant, and never shall be!"

Then grandfather turned upon him. He simply thundered. I was really frightened.

"'While' you're under my roof, young fellow, you're under my orders, I'll have you remember! I'll have no impertinence from you. I'm an old soldier, and when I say a thing I stick to it. I've rescued you from the workhouse for the sake of—"

Here he gulped and almost choked.

"—of your mother, who—who rued the day she went against my wishes. And as to going your own way, it will be my way, I can tell you. Isobel, pack them off to the school we heard about to-morrow. The sooner they're under discipline the better!"

Aunt Isobel murmured something under her breath about Easter holidays, and then Denys seemed to come to himself, and he spoke in his usual frank open way:

"I beg your pardon, sir. I ought not to have spoken so. Of course we're ready to carry out your orders. If we are not soldiers yet, we're Empire-builders, and we know discipline and duty are for all of us."

"Young Jackanapes!" growled grandfather.

But his outburst of temper seemed over.

"Go along with you," he said. "Your aunt will settle everything!"

We left the room feeling very small and rather miserable. I think we all felt that neither grandfather nor Aunt Isobel really cared twopence about us! And we all went up to the schoolroom to "talk over the situation,"—that's what Aylwin called it.

"The situation is a sad one," I said. And I sat down by the window, and looked out at the sea and felt miserable.

"It's a bad one!" said Denys, shaking his head.

Lynette danced round the table, her hair flying over her shoulders. She looked as if she hadn't a care in the world, and as if father hadn't died.

"Don't let us bother," she cried; "and don't let us stick up here. We have the whole day before us, and we can boat, and bathe, and paddle, and catch fish. Grandfather won't want to see any more of us. There's nothing to talk about. We have just got to enjoy ourselves!"

Puff clapped his hands and capered after her.

"I don't like the old gempleum at all!" he said. "And I won't never go into his room again."

Then the door opened very suddenly, and Aunt Isobel came in.

Denys very politely drew an arm-chair forward for her.

"I have come to talk to you all," she said, looking at us very gravely. "You do not seem to realise how very difficult it is for your grandfather to have taken you all in, as he has. He is an old man, and suffers very much from gout. And you, Denys, spoke to him in a most disrespectful and improper manner."

Denys got very red. Then he squared his shoulders and spoke out:

"I'm sorry. I should like you to explain things—it's strange to all of us, and I don't know what is expected of us."

"We have made arrangements for you two elder boys to go to a school about twenty miles from here as boarders. I have a governess coming in three weeks' time to teach you two girls, and your little brother. She will take entire charge of your education. Peggy will look after the little boy and mend your clothes and wait upon you. We had intended keeping you here for three weeks, but I don't know now that your grandfather will like to have you in the house."

"Oh, please Aunt Isobel," I said, "let us be together till we are accustomed to you. It all seems so dreadfully strange. We'll keep to our part of the house, won't we, boys? And grandfather need not see us at all, nor hear us. And we'll be as good as gold. We really will. It is very good of you to have us. We all feel that, don't we?"

I turned to the others, and they all nodded their heads.

I don't know if it was fancy, but I thought that Aunt Isobel seemed rather shy of us.

And then Lynette put in her word. She never can keep silent for long, but she put on her coaxing face.

"I dare say you'll just tell us whether there's a boat that we can have, and whether we shall have ponies to ride, or if there's a carriage to drive out in, and shall we have all our meals upstairs?"

"Most certainly. Peggy will arrange your meals. I dare say I may sometimes take one of you driving with me."

"And may we go all over the garden?" I asked.

"You may go anywhere you like, as long as you do not get into mischief. We have a boat, but you must never use it unless one of the men is with you. Davey, the under-gardener, takes it out, and he must always be with you."

"He'll have to come pretty often," said Aylwin under his breath.

"And please, Aunt Isobel," I said, "shall we ever have to come into your part of the house for anything—for—for prayers?"

She looked at me curiously, then said shortly:

"We have no prayers. If we want you, we shall send for you."

"There's just a question I'd like to ask," said Aylwin. "We're all stony broke—the whole lot of us. We haven't had our pocket-money for two months now, and we had to give a few presents away before we left the Rectory. I believe Grisel has twopence halfpenny, but that's as much as we possess between us. Is grandfather going to give us any pocket-money?"

"Shut up!" growled Denys. "There's plenty of time for that later on!"

Aunt Isobel got up from her chair.

"I'll speak to your grandfather about it," she said with great dignity, and then Puff astonished us by pushing up to her.

"Would you like to see me stand on my head?" he asked, smiling at her like a little angel. "I'm awful good at it!"

She waved him away.

"A very unhealthy occupation," she said, and then she left the room.

"Well," said Denys gloomily, "we've got something out of her, but she's a bit too cold for my liking. Now come on out, all of you!"

We were delighted, and, in spite of the strangeness and coldness of it all, we had an awfully jolly day. We first of all went to the stables and talked to the old coachman. There were only a fat pair of carriage horses and a gaunt-looking cob for a luggage cart. But Denys looked at the cart, told old Ambrose that it would suit us very well, and that he would like to drive out that afternoon.

"I'm a good whip," he said grandly; "and you can trust the old cob to me. We want to see the lie of the country. Will you send the cart round at three o'clock sharp!"

I gasped for breath. Lynette sniggled, and Aylwin winked at me. Denys very often astonished us, but I was astonished much more when Ambrose said meekly:

"Very well, sir. It shall be done."

And then we walked off and visited the dairy, and the laundry, and the walled fruit garden, and went along the long winding paths through the shrubbery, and were taken through the hothouses by a nice old gardener called Keith, and then the boys rushed off to see some silver pheasants, and we separated. Puff was enchanted to see a pond with some wild-fowl in it, and Lynette stayed with him whilst I went through a little iron gate in the middle of a high yew hedge, and found myself in a most lovely little sunk garden. It was an old rose garden, but there were no roses yet, only daffodils and narcissus in the bed. There were old rustic seats under trees—and a little stream which went along at the bottom and emptied itself, I suppose, into the pond. It seemed so quiet and still and peaceful, that for the first time I felt comforted. There was a sloping green bank covered with beautiful ferns, and a little rock garden at the top of it, and then suddenly I saw a little gravestone under a rose-tree, and when I went down on my knees before it, I read quite distinctly:

"IN MEMORY OF GRACE'S DARLING ROSEBUD
 DESTROYED BY FLUFFIE'S PUPPIES."

I felt all the tears come into my eyes, for I knew then that "Rosebud" had belonged to our mother.

I did not know who Rosebud was, a canary, a cat, or what kind of pet, but I sat down by the grave, and I began to think of dear father's grave in Lincolnshire, and then I thought of Heaven, and then thought of the charge he left us.

And then I knelt down and asked God to help us to "Hold fast," for there seemed nobody in this place who would help us to be good. We all felt the difference since father died. We always had him to go to when we wanted help—and he often gave it to us when we didn't ask for it. And then I remembered that, of course, God could help us quite alone, and that we really did not want anybody else. I felt a little happier then.

Then I wondered what our governess would be like. Lynette and I have never had a proper governess before. I thought it might be rather nice, it wouldn't be quite so lonely if we had somebody to look after us a little. And then I heard Lynette calling to me, and of course when I ran off, I found that Puff had nearly tumbled into the pond, and had soaked his clothes. We went back to the house, for I knew it must be nearly dinner-time. The boys met us at the door, and we went upstairs together. Peggy took Puff off.

"Is he sich a naughty bairn?" she said a little crossly.

"Oh no," I said, "but it's his way; he's always getting wet, or dirty, or torn. We don't think anything of it."

We had a hot leg of mutton, and a jam roly-poly for dinner. And we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

"I don't know that I want a drive," Lynette said; "I want to get down to the sea."

"It's high tide in the afternoon," said Denys. "I knew that before I asked for the cart."

"I suppose grandfather won't mind us taking it out," I said.

"He won't know or care," said Denys confidently. "We must see what kind of country we are in and where the nearest town is."

We were all ready and waiting at three o'clock.

One of the grooms brought the cart round to the back entrance and we all crowded in. Then Peggy came out in a fuss.

"Where are you going? Who told you to do this? You'll upset yourselves."

The groom grinned.

"'Tis all right," he said. "The mistress were told by Ambrose afore we harnessed up, and her said as how she thought if the young gent could drive, they could go. Slapper be a reg'lar old sheep!"

So we all set off in style. Denys flourished his whip. We almost thought we were driving Andy again, only Slapper's long legs got over the ground much quicker. We couldn't help giving a cheer and a wave of our hands as we passed the front of the house, and Lynette said she believed she saw grandfather looking out at us.

We trotted down the avenue, and then got out on a bare bleak road, with a long stone wall separating us from the sea. The air was salt and delicious, and the waves were rolling in, in first-rate style. It made us feel very jolly, and we began to sing some of our Empire songs as we went along. We liked our "old sheep." He swung along and though he didn't appear to go fast, he really did, and he never turned his head to look at a single thing. We began to talk about him.

"I like him," I said; "he goes straight ahead and does his duty, and puts his whole soul into it."

"Horses have no souls," objected Lynette. "I don't think much of him; he has no spirit."

"He's quite an ancient," Aylwin said, "he has one foot in the grave, so of course he is solemn."

"I expect he was always an old sheep," said Denys. "He didn't even wink at us when he saw us, and he must know we're a fresh lot here. But he has got beyond being surprised. If we were to dress him up as we did Andy, he would just trot on as gravely as ever."

"We'll try," said Lynette.

So she took off her big straw hat, and Denys pulled up, and Aylwin crawled along his back and tied it on. He just flicked his ears and bore it, and then we drove on, and he looked so comical that we roared with laughter.

All this time we had met nobody. I had never been along such a deserted road, and then suddenly, as we were driving close along to the top of a cliff, we heard a shout.

"Hi! Help!"

Denys pulled up at once. We all listened. It came again.

"It's somebody fallen over the cliff," said Denys.

He and Aylwin got out of the cart and ran to the edge and looked over. I was terrified that they would tumble over themselves. And then I heard Denys cry:

"All right! Here we are! Hold on!"